Wanneer wordt uw idee echt?

De intrinsieke waarde van concepten.

Een droom, als je een creatief, een ondernemer of een denker bent van welke aard dan ook. Als je ooit een idee hebt gehad dat je zo sterk trof, moest je ernaar handelen, materialiseren. Wanneer werd dit idee echt?

Op welk punt in de reis van je douche gedacht naar je bedrijf, boek of carrièrekeuze, is het eigenlijk van concept naar realiteit verplaatst?

Het lijkt een relatief eenvoudige vraag, op het eerste gezicht. Er is iets echt wanneer het wordt gemaakt. Wanneer je de wereld fysiek vormgeeft om het te creëren. Het idee dat je voor een boek hebt, wordt een boek wanneer je pen op papier zet en naar de pers stuurt. Uw startup-idee wordt een bedrijf wanneer u de oprichtingsdocumenten ondertekent en begint met het ophalen van een product. Natuurlijk.

Op het eerste gezicht zou ik het daarmee eens zijn. Maar eigenlijk heb ik de laatste tijd vaak nagedacht over de intrinsieke waarde van ideeën, vooral als ik terugkijk naar mijn eerste jaar als oprichter van het bedrijf, en ik moet toegeven dat ik er niet zo zeker van ben dat dingen zo eenvoudig zijn als ze lijken.

"Het was een project van velen. Ik was een dwaas van velen. Maar mijn idee valideerde mij. "

Een reis naar de werkelijkheid.

Playfold™started as a mission-driven research team in January 2017. Back then, we were focused on solving the problem of creative freedom and revenue generation in the digital age, by all means necessary. Before any idea of an actual product, a roadmap, or business plan.

However, the idea of Playfold began much earlier, during a summer’s long gestation in my room. I spent months thinking this idea inside out, visualising the possibility of really starting a company, reading about it, evaluating the risks and challenges. I used up entire forests worth of notes and sketches. I met people I admire, asked them for clues. I drew up the logo, the name, a plan for myself.

By the time I set out to assemble a team, by the time I had made the decision of, indeed, becoming a company founder, Playfold wasn’t an incorporated entity and it didn’t have a product to sell. It was, in fact, only known by me. But it was as real to me as it will ever be.

And with this idea, only with this idea in my hands, I started putting Playfold out there, interviewing people, receiving feedback. The idea started to be known around some circles. There is a whole array of people from back then who knew Playfold before I myself even realised what Playfold really was.

And the fantastic people I met who are now my team mates, my closest advisors and partners, they came on board enticed and excited by that idea only.

It was a project out of many. I was a fool out of many. But my idea validated me.

After that time, Playfold really became a company. But not at once. We still spent a year with no salaries, no product, no real revenue. Only this idea growing and growing, and collecting more people around it.

We experimented, researched. we had our moments of doubt, days of ecstasy. We gained some curious eyes at first, then some interested partners. Then clients, followers, new contributors, advisors and investors. We became a “real" company bit by bit, without paying to much attention to when precisely. And I am not even sure I could find that moment with precision anyway.

And that idea is still there. It’s still that initial volition that moves me every day to act, and reach the vision I had for Playfold. The only difference is that now hundreds of people believe this idea too.

“An idea can change the World even if only one person believes it."

Pushing Out.

This line of thinking applies to almost every other human endeavour, as everything originally comes from an idea. A dream, an aspiration. As soon as you start acting on the idea you had, as soon as you feel it pushing out, reality begins to be shaped by it, and it becomes, for all intents and purposes, real.

That’s the intrinsic value of ideas. You don’t need a formal legitimisation, you don’t need a title. An idea can change the World even if only one person believes it.

Think about it. Most of the things we believe as a collectivity are just shared ideas. Laws, promises, religions, cultures, wars. They are just mass-enforced abstractions.

Martin Luther didn’t move the masses but with a piece of paper. The idea of a Nation can push us to a bloody revolution, or to the Moon.

That thing you have inside, that neural pattern we call thought, is already real. It can reverberate, and be embraced by those who are similar to you.

It can only start with the action of a passionate believer. Act on that idea you have inside. Write that song, or launch that startup. Go full in, and be smart about it. You’ll look back, one day, and observe that truly it was real all along.

Thank you for reading!

If you want more, or you want to embark on a beautiful adventure, follow me here on Medium, on Twitter and Instagram.

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